How many of you observant readers have noticed that in this past week, the comment box is now populated with little image boxes next to your comment name? Did not notice? Aww… shame on you! 😛
What I have done is activated the avatar function in the comments box so if you are signed up on Gravatar, your comment will now feature an avatar right next to your name. A Gravatar is a “Globally Recognised Avatar” so its an image that is not unique to your comment on my site, but it will follow you anywhere you comment so long as you use the same email address you register with Gravatar to leave your comment.
But why do you need this?
You don’t. Honest injun!
But its fun to have because it makes you noticeable and recognisable. I activated the avatar function because I wanted to personalise the comment box a little more. (If you are in WordPress, Go to Settings -> Discussion -> Avatars -> Show Avatars) I believe comment plugins like IntenseDebate or Disqus also pull gravatar images but Blogger comments do not (for now). The images that show up in the Blogger comments are usually by people with a Blogger profile.
This tip isn’t only for bloggers but applies to commentators too. The Gravatar will follow you wherever you leave a comment so if that blog or website has avatars turned on, you’ll see yours pop up there too. People are conditioned to recognise images as opposed to text, so if someone sees your image, and recognises you, they would be more likely to read what you have to say too. Now isn’t that nice? 🙂
You don’t need to use a picture of yourself of course. I do but its a stylised one. Some people use their website logos, some use cartoons, and others use random images they relate to themselves.
So if you have not already done so, now’s a good time to sign up for a Gravatar. If nothing else, you don’t have to live with seeing a grey silhouette box next to your name the next time you leave a comment here 🙂 Now, leave a comment and let’s see what your new avatar is 😉
Have a good weekend everyone!
Paris B
Hey Paris thanks for the tip! I’m going to check it out right now.
Hi Jacqueline! And there you are! 😀
I like yours, very cool!
Thank you! 🙂 Sometimes a chance photo is all it takes for a classic shot 😀
Had a Gravatar for years. Not useful per se, just fun. Otherwise, some other websites will just use their default non-avatar too, and that’s not fun 😛
Speaking of which, I haven’t logged into my Gravatar account for awhile now… darn.
As you said, not very useful but its lots of fun – and its a nice identification of oneself 😀 I haven’t logged into Gravatar either. Almost couldn’t get in coz I couldn’t remember my password 😛
LOL. I see my kitty Gravatar up there! 😀
I think I never logged into Gravatar since I signed up for them, but since my kitty is my standard profile pic everywhere (incl. Twitter) may as well leave it as it is. I’m more recognizable that way. 😛
Haha yeah I think most of us familiar with you would also be familiar with the kitty gravatar 😀
Let me try, Paris :-). At wordpress, its automatically activate …
And there you have it! 😀 Thanks for the tip about WordPress. Guess those who have wordpress accounts will automatically have them too 😀
Hello Paris! Here I am with a picture!
And there you are! 😀
Thanks for the reminder! I don’t even remember that I already had an account without an image..LOL!
LOL I like seeing images of commentators – its easy to associate a name with a picture too.
This is my avatar (:
Have a nice weekend, ParisB!
And hello there Sandra! 😀
I love gravatars! My other site (my skin care blog) has a really old theme and it doesn’t support gravatars:( I think I need to install a new theme to be gravatar-friendly.
Yes Jeni, many older themes don’t support gravatars or threading comments and I think these are great features to have on a blog 🙂
ooh, that’s me 😀
Gravatar is a great things. This way people with the same name can have different images.
Yes you, lovely lady! 😉 And you’re right about the name thing. Sometimes, I see people of the same name leaving a comment and I wonder why, until I realise they are different people. So a Gravatar can help, if you choose to post using a common name 🙂
my gravatar is…i don’t know what it is! i googled an image and thought it was cool enough and now i don’t know how to change it.
Haha I keep thinking its a radioactive cat 😛 You can change your gravatar by going to gravatar.com, logging in and changing your photo 🙂
maybe that should be my new online moniker. ksuan is swan, and i’ll be dom the radioactive cat.
mwahhahaa! Dom the radioactive cat! 😀
hahaha…after your post I realised I’d signed up for gravatar…but hadn’t uploaded an image! *fail* 😛 thanks for the reminder!
LOL! Glad the reminder has resulted in a face to the name! 😀